Chuck Yeager’s 1947 Flight Inspired Our Supersonic Ambitions

Legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager—the first man to break the sound barrier and live to tell the tale—died on Monday in Los Angeles. The retired Air Force brigadier general was 97. On October 14, 1947, Yeager clambered inside the neon orange Bell X-1 with the help of a 10-inch broomstick. The pilot, already legendary after […]